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News 12 Staff

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Democrats saw a groundswell of support in this week's election, a historic win, doing something that no party had been able to do since 1961, and that's to hold on to the governor's office for a third straight term. So how'd they do it and what went wrong for Republicans this time? I'm joined now by Peter Woolley, founding director of the School of Public and Global Affairs at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Peter, it's good to see you. It's good to be here. Thank you. What a week. Uh, yeah, I, I've seen a lot of people try and deconstruct this race. Comments from Republicans this week, so I'm just gonna kind of rattle a couple of them off here. State lawmakers conceding that they were outplayed in some cases. Others said it. Because of the government shutdown, uh, and still others said that it was a referendum on Donald Trump. What do you think? uh was it one thing or was it all of the above? Well, I think the main thing was it was a referendum on Donald Trump. Candidate Cheryl called for that referendum and she called that having done her homework, and it turned out she was right. She won that referendum. Donald Trump and Jack Chitarelli lost that referendum. The president, you know, for, for good or for ill, has really penetrated New Jersey politics and you know, probably people heard more about what Trump was doing than what the candidates were doing these last several months. So even though I, I understand the Republican candidate tried to make it more about Jersey than about Donald Trump and about what was going in the White House, Donald Trump didn't help the Republican at all. In fact, he kept stepping on him, uh, for example, canceling. The the gateway tunnel project. I mean that hurts people immediately and then of course you have the federal uh government shutdown. The consequences of that are reported every day. It affects people, especially as it drags on people worried about their benefits of one kind or another, and all that eventually makes its way into motivating voters to go and express their frustration and in some cases their outright anger against the president. In general, I would say, uh, going back to 1961, New Jersey governor races are about a referendum on the White House. In in Europe they have something called a by-election when a seat in parliament comes open between general elections, everybody watches just that one seat to see what it says about the prime minister and the governing party in the United States. States the equivalent of that is actually New Jersey and Virginia. Everybody watches the New Jersey and Virginia races, which always occur right after the presidential year, to see what that says about the president. And this year it said we don't like what the president is doing. So is this a harbinger of what's to come in the midterms. This is, this is a harbinger of how people are going to feel. In the next round of election, assuming that the president doesn't become another person and doesn't dramatically change his tactics which wind up in the news every day and you know present the American people often with an unpredictable picture of what's going to happen, whether that lack of predictability is in tariff policy or ICE people showing up on your street. There are those who pointed to Jack Chiarelli during the debate saying that he would give President Trump an A for his time in office. How much did that hurt him? I think it hurt a lot because, and, and, and to be fair to Jack Chittarelli, I think he had a hard choice. If he walks away from the president or criticizes the president, the risk is that the president will jump in and openly criticize him. That's a big risk. It also. Has the risk of alienating your base support. Now the Republicans were very enthusiastic about Jack Chittarelli, but a lot of that enthusiasm is rooted in their enthusiasm for the president. That's the way Republican politics works now. You have to show your loyalty to the president, not just to get him to endorse you or to stop criticizing you, but to get the vote. Voters on your side, you have to do that. So I'm really not sure what grade Jack Chittarelli could have given other than an A and yet pursued his pursued his campaign plan and kept the base happy. And I think the last thing you want to do is is try and take away from how he performed in this election because Jack Chitarelli still got almost 1.4 million votes. Yeah, he got more votes than he did in the last round. And the fact is, look, he is a Jersey guy. He, he is conversant with all the issues. There are a lot of people with a lot of confidence in him, even people who didn't vote for him. I mean, in the circles I run in, would, would say sort of, uh, you know, in a sotavace that they like Jack, that, that he, he was a good candidate and, uh, you almost got the impression they would vote for him except, uh, maybe I was talking to a Democrat. Uh, it's, it wasn't just the governor's race, obviously, where Republicans lost here. They also lost some ground in some of the state assembly races. Was that again because of ongoings in Washington? Yeah, so I mean you had, you had a turnout surge. A lot of that of course was anti-Trump surge, and a lot of that then had secondary knockoff effects on other races. So you see in a legislative district that's long been Republican LD 21, uh, up in Union County. Uh, uh, we had 2 Republican legislators, 2 women legislators who are relatively moderate, uh, go down, uh, to 2 Democrats in that district. And overall, of course, the Democrats far from losing, uh, seats in, you know, in an, in an, in an election which the Republican challenger wanted to make a referendum on Trenton. The Democrats gained seats. In fact, uh, they're, they're gonna have what amounts to a supermajority. So the governor-elect now needs to step down from her seat in Congress. Uh, I asked her about that in the show earlier and no date was was specified. She, she, she didn't have an answer for that yet, but when do you expect that could happen and, and who do you think could fill that seat because there's already a couple of pretty notable names that have been floated, including former congressman Tom Malinowski. Yes, there are, there are people lining up for that seat. The line is long. Uh, we, we can't really know about when, uh, the congresswoman is going to resign because that's something she's gonna have to negotiate with her own democratic leadership in the House, uh, and with the shutdown going on, that's more as she pointed out, right, and her vote is critical in anything that happens, the, the Republican majority in the House. slow slender. Every vote counts for the Democrats and the Republicans, so it's, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a difficult negotiation, a tight call. Peter Woolley from FDU. I have to cut you off right there. Uh, thank you so much for being here and sharing your expertise with us. I appreciate it and keep it right here on Power and Politics. We've got much more coming up for you right after the break.

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There is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announcing a drastic reduction in the number of flights at major airports due to the ongoing government shutdown. Major airlines at Newark Liberty implementing the new directive from the FAA to reduce air traffic. The agency says that there just is not enough air traffic controllers. There aren't enough to keep up. Airlines like United say that they plan to make the adjustment in phases over the next week. 12 United flights out of Newark had to be canceled Friday. 40 United flight. Per day will be canceled starting next week. Over the last 24 hours, that partnership with the FAA and United and all the airlines has been really strong, and what the FAA shared, uh, both publicly and with the airlines is that their top priority is safety, just like ours. So if we have to reduce the schedule just a little bit over this period to support that, we're very committed to doing so. With no end in sight for the government shutdown, airlines just aren't sure how long the reductions will last. United says for now all international flights will operate as normal. And we end this week with a sea of red, white, and blue at Memorial Park in Spring Lake. Dozens of flags lined the streets surrounding the firehouse thanks to the efforts of the local Rotary Club. Our Jim Murdoch shows us why the members hope to make this an annual event for Veterans Day. It's tough to find a more picturesque autumn setting at the Jersey shore than Spring Lake. Now the traditional fall colors provide a warm contrast to the patriotic colors of America. It's incumbent upon us to recognize all those people. Each flag represents a local hero honored by friends or family who purchased the flag and plaque in their name. We're honoring our service veterans both past and present, by installing flags and. A memorial plaque and all the proceeds raised from the donations will go to one of our local veterans charities. The colors of freedom flying so proudly above each name, honoring those two simple yet emotional words, never forget. I think that generation needs to be continually recognized for the sacrifices they made. Really, when you think about it through the Great Depression and then the war, they didn't have it easy. The Rotary Club set the. Goal of 50 flags for 50 honorees. The actual number of flags donated for their first effort, 61. I hope it stirs some patriotism. I hope it forgets all the bad news we've been receiving regardless of your political stripe. A simple symbolic gesture bringing recognition and honor to those who put everything on the line for our freedom this Veterans Day and every day in Spring Lake, Jim Murdoch News 12, New Jersey. And that'll do it for this week. I'm Eric Lz Kruner. As always, we thank you for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again next time.

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On this week's Power & Politics, News 12's Eric Landskroner is joined by New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill fresh of her Election Day win. Sherrill discusses what attributed to her win on Election Day, her post-election discussion with her Republican challenger in the gubernatorial race, Jack Ciattarelli, and what actions she plans to take on Day 1 as New Jersey's newest governor.

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